Tag Archives: expat life

Death and taxes are the only things certain in life so they reckon. Well death anyway: some people never pay taxes. Where you choose to live invariably impacts on where you’re likely to die and, in some cases, how. Some…

Visal is my motodop, providing daily transportation on the back of his motorbike to and from my job because I am too terror-stricken to drive myself in Phnom Penh’s traffic. I pay Visal $60 at the beginning of every month to shuttle me in the morning and back in the afternoon, a rate which works out to $1.50 one way. Visal persuasively explained that it would be better for him to get paid monthly so that he could get work done on his bike. Continue reading →

27 year old British national Marc Davey from Leeds was found in a guestroom at the famous Walkabout Hotel on the corner of Street 51 and Street 174 in Phnom Penh when cleaners entered the room after failing to rouse the inhabitant when they came to clean his room. He was found at 1.45pm local time on Sunday April 5th 2015. When the cleaners entered the room he was slumped forward on the bed in a kneeling position. Continue reading →

Clarke Illmatical describes his attempts to adjust to live in Cambodia and the way the locals think and behave, and on the way learns how to deal with face, why white girl / localguy relationships are doomed to fail and – closer to home – how he is perceived as a black man in Cambodia. Continue reading →

People love to look down on each other. Even those at the lowest of the low finds someone else to judge. Hell, when I was addicted to heroin I looked down on the alcoholic who lived downstairs. “The poor bastard is destroying himself,” I’d think after waking up to find myself face down on my keyboard having typed 232 pages of “mmmmmmm.” Continue reading →

The former owner and admin of Khmer440 died suddenly yesterday, aged 49. gavinmac’s portrait of keeping_it_riel remembers a friend (and occasional foe) who had an unforgettable impact on Phnom Penh expat life. Continue reading →

Pedro Milladino moves back to the big city and finds his new neighbourhood of Phnom Penh Thmey is a place of contrasts, and a place where a new urban elite are using their riches to leave an indelible mark on the landscape. Continue reading →